The time has come for my predicted announcement: I will be shutting down my Patreon creator page sometime in the next hours. Existing members should be automatically unsubscribed when I unpublish the page so there's no need to do anything. I'll likely continue creating content for free in some form, granted I can still find it in me to want to work on anything and a safe place to post it.

The main culprit wasn't even Patreon but its banking service Payoneer: They refused to renew my card without making ridiculous and creepy demands that endanger me. Namely asking that I take photos of myself holding sheets of paper where I draw dates or something; That's the sort of request you expect from a pimp trying to snatch a victim on the internet and troll them too... of course corporations and banking services are on par with petty criminals these days so no surprise, they're just open about it at this point. Since I can't use PayPal offline and trust them even less with how they randomly ban creators, my Patreon was effectively rendered useless by this blockage. Patreon itself has been demanding my photo for almost an year, in its case to target creators for age discrimination in their war against people under 18, I was still able to use it but no idea how long that would have lasted either. Patreon heavily polices what you're allowed to make anyway, even elsewhere on the internet since artists mentioned being banned by Patreon for art they posted on other platforms. All things considered, it wasn't worth pursuing them further and trying to use the platform at all cost: If anything I'm glad to no longer be supporting their broken service, it was a fun 9 years while that was possible but the road has come to an end.

To be clear: I will NOT share a photo of myself at the request of any online platform, nor a banking service linked to my art! Not in a world where artists can be persecuted and physically assaulted for their art, while governments can arrest creators with things like "drawings are child abuse" or whatever else the precedent now expands to. If they want to do anything to me, they need to at least make the minimal effort of looking me up on Facebook or something, in that case it's at least an indirect link I have no control over... I'm not handing them my photo on a silver platter and inviting them to target me for violating whatever doctrine the cult of America is now under. Handing them my ID with my address on it was the furthest I was willing to go just for a bank: No one attacked my house in all those years thank goodness, but my full photo would be too much today and could put me at risk of being attacked in the street by vigilantes involved with US / EU authorities. If at least I knew I'd be killed then hell I'd welcome it, but I don't want to find myself in a knife / gun attack or my home broken into or something happening to my mother over their hatred of me. I know this may sound far fetched, but I've seen those people in action on Twitter / Furaffinity and other places they've made into their nests... they're completely delusional and fanatical and have governments in their pocket passing those thought crime laws for them, it's unclear what lengths they can go to especially if officials from banks or tech companies were involved. All in all I can't be part of this system at this point, I literally can't work in and be involved with this world any longer.

What happens next: I'm increasingly withdrawing to myself and a small group of good beings I know well, the only logical option is to isolate myself from the outside world at this point. I still plan to make and share content, whatever I want to create without these monsters controlling me. Due to the moral infestation on most online platforms, I plan to focus on sites that have zero restrictions on art and who can access it, my works are and will remain freely licensed for this reason. I'm looking primarily for decentralized systems, so far a Mastodon for art is yet to emerge and a Pixelfed server with sane rules is yet to be found; At worst I could store my stuff directly on IPFS, I don't have a dedicated server machine so I'll have to see if seeding them from my computer while it's powered on is good enough, it would then be possible to access it at certain hours while I'm online. Announcements for things like software projects should still be posted via journals, as is some art that doesn't go against the morality rules of each respective platform. As for income I have some money left to live off since selling my late grandmother's house, plus a few kind beings and my biological father helping me with occasional donations... when that's over so long and nice meeting you all, for now I'll still be on this planet for a while.

More Red Eclipse goodness. Especially as this is a shared work and kind of side project, I'm making this announcement a public post as I don't take all the credit, but I've attached the latest version of the map here as well for everyone to find and enjoy. As RE approaches its long awaited 2.1.0 release, I'm happy I could provide some of my own maps and now ports to be included.

I'm happy to offer my latest map port for Red Eclipse 2.1, this time of the famous map Stone by Wicked. I've replaced the missing textures, redid the weapon and entity setup, and most importantly added several new areas most notably a playable exterior at the top! The remix is modernized but still faithful to the original, now themed to be an Egyptian map with bright days and starry nights.

I've been working on something I'd say is pretty impressive over the past month. No idea how far I'll get with it, but once it's stable I plan on sharing more here within the next couple of weeks. Will only say it involves voxels... not Minetest or Godot this time, still working with those as well obviously... wait did I actually mean texels?

In the meantime I'm facing another issue related to income: Though Patreon had the common sense not to shut me down for refusing to bow to their attempts at preforming identity theft on me, I'm unable to renew my card with Payoneer which would kinda render Patreon useless. The reason seems to be an absurd technical issue: The link to renew my card leads to a blank page, no error or anything the whole browser tab just goes completely white. How is it not possible for a frigging banking service to program their website with a minimal level of competence, at least enough so pages actually render? I opened a support ticket but no one is answering it for days, I may have to pause for a month or more unless this is sorted out before it actually expires.

Showing Red Eclipse some love: The team is getting close to the long awaited 2.1.0 release and needs help porting some of the old maps, which now that I'm so familiar with its editor I've jumped into doing. Unlike my previous two maps this is based on an existing layout from the old days, credit goes to T1 for the base geometry... for all intents and purposes it is a new map now: I remade most of it under a new modern feel with proper texturing and detail, which includes a new platform at the top and making tight areas less cramped, the map supports all game modes plays well with bots and has proper weapon placement. Especially as this is a shared work and kind of side project, I'm making this announcement a public post as I don't take all the credit, but I've attached the latest version of the map here as well for everyone to find and enjoy. RE has come a long way with new features happening each day: Feel free to give this dynamic space map a try if you're interested in playing the upcoming version of RE!